AS OF 18 September 2010

Nathaniel Mellors - Ourhouse
18.09.2010 - 05.12.2010

The British artist Nathaniel Mellors has developed a large new installation entitled Ourhouse especially for De Hallen Haarlem. In it Mellors combines architectonic and sculptural elements with a series of narrative videos. With this work he interprets the phenomenon of the television series in a satirical manner that is unmistakably his own. The installation Ourhouse is to be seen in De Hallen Haarlem from 17 September through 5 December, 2010.

The videos in the installation Ourhouse tell the story of a rich European family which is suddenly confronted with a mysterious manifestation. This manifestation, which very quickly is called ‘The Object’, appears in the family's country home, and sparks off a series of events that deeply influence the fate of individual family members. From the bohemian patriarch Daddy through the submissive gardener Bobby Jobby, they all have to deal with an inexplicable twist in their daily lives, until slowly but surely everyone is under the spell of ‘The Object’.

The power of language and media
The power of language is an important theme in the work of Nathaniel Mellors (b. Doncaster, 1974). He is chiefly interested in the way in which language is used in contemporary media, the political ‘spin’ culture and entertainment. Among the points of departure for Ourhouse are the scriptwriting and production techniques of TV series of various sorts. The grotesque and absurd are always present in Mellors’s work, where he employs a vocabulary that is entirely his own to provide a humorous commentary on issues such as power, religion and political ideologies.

More Mellors in De Hallen Haarlem
Especially for this exhibition Nathaniel Mellors has selected films by the artist Paul McCarthy (b. 1945, Salt Lake City, USA) from the collection of De Hallen Haarlem, which will be shown in the Cabinet. De Hallen Haarlem holds seven audiovisual works by McCarthy, who broke through in the 1970s and ’80s with a series of provocative performance works, and presently is counted as one of America's most important living artists. Work by Mellors has previously been presented in De Hallen Haarlem: in 2008 the museum acquired the two-channel video installation The Time Surgeon (2007).

Publication
The publication Book A /MEGACOLON/ For and Against Language is published alongside Ourhouse. It contains a selection of scripts by Nathaniel Mellors and texts by John C. Welchman and Mick Peter. Book A/MEGACOLON/For and Against Language is edited by Xander Karskens. Design: Remco van Bladel. Publisher: Onomatopee. RSP € 30. Expected release date: 17 September 2010.
From 5 November through 19 December Onomatopee presents Mellors’ work in its project space. This exhibition is organised in collaboration with De Hallen Haarlem. Further information: www.onomatopee.net.

Ourhouse is made possible in part by the Filmfonds and the Fonds BKVB.
Book A / MEGACOLON is supported by the Fonds BKVB.

Body/Space Mechanics - Group exhibition film and video
18.09.2010 - 05.12.2010

Charles Atlas
Jesper Just
Aernout Mik
Markus Schinwald
Julia Kouneski & Michelle Williams Gamaker

The focus of the international group exhibition ‘Body/Space Mechanics’ is the complicated relation between the human body and its surroundings. Six artists present in film and video works their views about identity and the fraught relation between the individual and the collective. This exhibition in De Hallen Haarlem has been organised to accompany the Madness & Arts Festival, and can be seen through 5 December, 2010.

In ‘Body/Space Mechanics’artists respond to the body as a site of conflict and resistance, a place where prevailing norms are opposed, assailed and breached. That happens in the course of performances, recorded on video, in which the boundaries of the ‘normal’ are intentionally sought out.

In some of the works shown, such as those by Charles Atlas and Kouneski/Williams Gamaker, the body is primarily employed to explore limits which have been established in advance. Other works (Jesper Just, Markus Schinwald) have a more cinematic and narrative character, in which the uncanny and suspense play an important role. Territorium (1999) by Aernout Mik is also being shown. In this exhibition it serves a pivotal function: both within Mik's own oeuvre and in the exhibition, it is a sort of mid-point between a neutral recording of a performance and a more narrative conception.

The exhibition ‘Body/Space Mechanics’ was organised to accompany the Madness & Arts Festival 2010, which after Toronto (2003) and Münster (2006) will be taking place in Haarlem from 24 September through 3 October, 2010.


Peter van Straaten - Winner of the Van Looy Prize
18.09.2010 - 05.12.2010

The cartoonist Peter van Straaten (b. Arnhem, 1935) is this year's winner of the Van Looy Prize – and with it comes an exhibition in De Hallen Haarlem. This prize is awarded every five years by the Jacobus van Looy Foundation to a 'double talent': someone who combines the visual arts and writing in an exceptional manner. De Hallen Haarlem will show a selection of his most beautiful and powerful drawings.
Peter van Straaten has been working as illustrator and political cartoonist for more than 50 years. His drawings are published in several Dutch newspapers and weekly magazines .